How to be a successful bonsai beginner

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Ways to learn "Bonsai" is, I believe, the goal Greg "Bonsai Nut" was looking for. Bonsai is an art form, with several aspects that are difficult to cover in one post, or even a single book.

There are several main areas one needs to learn in order to do bonsai well.

First is the horticulture. This seems obvious, but the nuances were hinted at above. Bonsai is an art where trees or shrubs are our modeling clay. Creating the illusion of proportion and forcing a sense of perspective requires using shallow and wide containers, bonsai pots, and these shallow containers require somewhat different horticultural techniques than a standard nursery pot. One needs to learn basic horticulture, and learn how to grow trees in modern substrates, like the "holy trinity" of pumice, lava and akadama. Growing in bonsai media is not the same as "growing in dirt". There's a bewildering array of acceptable media beyond the pumice, lava, akadama standard, so it is important to work out what you can source locally, and then learn how to use your mix.

If you come to the hobby with good horticulture experience from other aspects of gardening, this phase is relatively easy. If you are new to horticulture, this learning phase can take a while. If you have a lot to learn, keep your early experiments inexpensive nursery material.

The art originally evolved in Japan and China, and Vietnam and Korea, each country having their own independent aesthetics. In each country, they used locally native species, and they GREW THEM OUTDOORS. Indoor space was at a premium. Trees were grown outdoors, and brought indoors for display only for a few hours at a time, particularly in Japan, in the others, like China, visitors were brought outside to view the Penjing in the display garden. Only crazy Westerners with luxurious spacious homes would try to grow trees indoors, indoor growing is a uniquely western approach to bonsai. I heartily recommend learning to grow outdoors if you are able. Search various threads on growing vtrees outdoors. There's many on this site.

Modern lighting makes indoor growing possible now in ways that were not possible even as recently as 10 years ago. LED lighting has come a long way. Search threads on growing indoors. Of note are the threads by @cmeg1 who does an excellent job of raising trees under lights.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I want to mention that @rockm most clearly mentioned the fact that different techniques are used for bonsai in different phases of development.

Starting from seed, take many years, easily more than 5 years, during this "nurseryman's phase" of raising bonsai, you learn and use very few bonsai techniques. It is mostly tree nursery horticulture.

Taking nursery stock that may have 5 to 25 years of growth, and bringing it thru the steps to become pre-bonsai ready for it's first real styling, again is a narrow, limited number of bonsai techniques. Different from the techniques for seedlings, but no where near the full repertoire of bonsai techniques. Nursery stock can only teach you so much. Landscape trees harvested from an urban or suburban setting still fall into the nursery stock category. "Urban-yamadori" are still just older nursery stock, they are not the equivalent of wild collected trees.

Yamadori, by which I literally mean trees collected from the mountains. And forest collected trees need a different set of bonsai related skills. Handing century old, wild collected stock is a specialized skill set that is very much a part of bonsai.

Trees that have been grown for bonsai, then go through a series of being styled, then allowed to grow out. Then styled again, then allowed to grow out. This is the transition from pre- bonsai to bonsai. When I use the term bonsai, I mean the tree is ready to display at a local club level show. Here the largest number of bonsai techniques comes in to play. There are many techniques that don't get used until a tree is near show ready..

Then there are exhibition quality trees, these are at the higher level of refinement. Good enough to take ribbons and or prides at the local level and on the way toward becoming a top level tree. There are a series of techniques that get used here that would never be seen used on a less developed tree.

Finally there are "post exhibition quality" trees. Here the trees have matured past the effectiveness of the style they had been trained toward. Here the trees are in need of complete restyling, a new and different vision need to be imposed. This is actually one of the areas of expertise that Kimura was known for.

Now if you, as a beginner want to learn all bonsai has to offer, you need one or more trees in each of these phases of development. You will never learn the advanced techniques if you only start with inexpensive nursery stock. True given enough time, nursery stock can move through all these phases, but it will take decades to get there.

As a beginner, make a 5 year plan. Learn the horticulture. Learn about initial training of nursery stock. Then plan for the purchase of advanced materials by the time you have been in the hobby 5 years. You don't need a bunch of advanced trees, but you should get at least one tree that is near exhibition quality. This will be the tree that teaches you the "real art" of bonsai techniques. You will need to learn display techniques. You will have to learn the refinement techniques. Owning an advanced tree will force you to stretch your skills.

Don't doom yourself to being a perpetual beginner, by sticking with only nursey stock. Branch out get at least one yamadori, at least one more advanced tree, and by watching for club auctions, look for "post exhibition" quality trees. Bonsai hobbyist "of a certain age" may auction or sell off their collection. Be ready to jump on a sale. This is an excellent time to get an advanced tree without spending a fortune.

So diversify your collection. Not with a large number of species, but rather with trees of a range of stages of development. Only this will teach you the "whole Art of Bonsai".

 

[Mikecheck123]

Many people see bonsai and fall in love with a species that is difficult to keep and then come here and ask for advice on how to resurrect it, after the fact. Skip that first failure. As above said, find a species that will grow in your situation.

Yes! Starting with unsuitable material is maybe the most common beginner mistake.

That weeping willow cutting on Amazon is cheap, but it is a dead end. Your mom's rose bush is a dead end. That money tree at Target is a dead end. And (to be honest and at the risk of perhaps offending someone), that juniper from the roadside stand is probably also a dead end.

Other dead ends/scams:
-seed kits or seeds in general (if doing that to start out)
-wisteria cuttings
-sago palms

Good beginner material:
Chinese elms (even from the roadside stands!) (or any other elms, really)
Ficuses
Nursery stock (of a suitable species) with a promising trunk.

 

[andrewiles]

How do folks suggest us newbies handle education, esp. those of us who are doing this as a hobby and not a profession? Not everyone can set aside 4 years for an internship, but many of us can take intensives, local classes, etc. I'd think that misc. individual classes lack continuity and consistency, and the ability to watch changes to a tree over time. Feels like a big loss.

Secondly, I think most beginners with a long term view probably should focus more on basic horticulture, propagation, and learning early aspects of the grow-out phase of the bonsai life cycle. It seems to me that fitting trees in tiny pots, improving ramification, leaf size reduction, etc. are for a couple years down the road. Curious if others agree.

 

[Forsoothe!]

There is no substitute for being taught by a real, live person. Joining a club is The most constructive move that any new kid can make. Clubs meeting once a month or so offer old members who are more than happy to sit with new kids in cheap workshops and/or at meetings or at their homes and help them when they are stuck. Being able to pick up the phone or log into a wbsite and get an answer to a question when the question ocurrs is very helpful, but sitting down and doing with someone looking over your shoulder, -that's priceless. Join a club.

 

[Adair M]

There is no substitute for being taught by a real, live person. Joining a club is The most constructive move that any new kid can make. Clubs meeting once a month or so offer old members who are more than happy to sit with new kids in cheap workshops and/or at meetings or at their homes and help them when they are stuck. Being able to pick up the phone or log into a wbsite and get an answer to a question when the question ocurrs is very helpful, but sitting down and doing with someone looking over your shoulder, -that's priceless. Join a club.

I agree that joining a club is helpful. But it is not “THE” most constructive move possible. That would be taking the Intensive type classes offered by the various professionals who offer them.

 

[BobbyLane]

There is no substitute for being taught by a real, live person. Joining a club is The most constructive move that any new kid can make. Clubs meeting once a month or so offer old members who are more than happy to sit with new kids in cheap workshops and/or at meetings or at their homes and help them when they are stuck. Being able to pick up the phone or log into a wbsite and get an answer to a question when the question ocurrs is very helpful, but sitting down and doing with someone looking over your shoulder, -that's priceless. Join a club.

and is that how you were able to bring your trees to the elite level theyre at today

 

[Forsoothe!]

and is that how you were able to bring your trees to the elite level they're at today

...In spades. Everything I know today was taught to me directly or indirectly by all those who came before me, and shared. We are all standing on the shoulders of better men who invented the science and art long before we were a twinkle in our Daddy's eye.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I got my "first bonsai" in 1971, and have pretty much continuously grown at least a few trees. I've started over a few times. For the first 25 or so years I was entirely self taught. Books, and when it was finally invented, the internet. My first tree was a pomegranate. I had been growing it for 25+ years. I took a serious look at it, and realized it still looked like a shrub. Did not look like bonsai at all. With 25+ years of being in a bonsai pot, I obviously was missing the point. That is when I joined the Milwaukee Bonsai Society, and began taking classes. The best thing I did for myself was a class series by Ted Matson. The agreement was 3 years, we would meet 3 or 4 times a year, for 3 years. We had a group of 16 people who shared the cost of flying Ted Matson to Milwaukee, and put him up for 3 days. 8 of us would share Ted for a 10 hour day. We'd use a timer, we each got an hour & 10 minutes (it adds up to a little over 10 hours) We would use our time in small increments. Key was our work tables were arranged in a circle, so we could all see and hear what was being discussed with others while we worked on our own. The Spring, Summer & Autumn visits by Ted allowed us to get the cycle of the seasons. He asked that we bring at least 3 trees back over and over again.

It wasn't cheap, but when shared between a group it was "do-able". The class series was a revelation. Ted might not be the flashiest of artists, but his ability to convey the basics, to lay a foundation of broad general knowledge was excellent. Currently Ted is the curator of the bonsai collection at the Huntington in California.

There is no substitute for hands on learning. If you are not close to a bonsai society, or if scheduling and such makes joining a group difficult, consider forming a study group. I also belong to one of those. We try to meet monthly, we rotate as hosts. Our particular group has no dues and no leader beyond one person who tends to be the one with the calendar and gets the list of dates and locations organized. Ideally you have a group of 3 to 8 give or take, where everyone is at a different level of experience. Just working on your own projects, in a group setting, where you can see what others are doing and they are willing to explain, you can all learn something. For example, I did my grafting experiments in front of our group. Got tips from the two that had dones some grafting. And one of the less experienced got started on grafting watching, and now, a couple years later, is the most proficient grafter of the group. Two of our group study with Ryan Neil, and share much of what they learn. So a study group is a viable option if you don't have a club nearby. It is also a good supplement beyond what can be done with a club.

Club shows are great opportunities to see others work, and to learn. You do not have to join a club to attend a show. I also make a point of travelling to see other shows. Often work would take me to various places, I would then look up what bonsai clubs were in the area, and if possible I'd arrive a day early or leave a day late, so I could take a day to visit a show.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

So just as there are "outsider artists" there are, can be "outsider" bonsai artists, that are entirely self taught. But, those that are able to grasp the 4 dimensional aspects of bonsai without assistance from others are few and far between. Most who insist on being "outsiders" end up foundering around, with less than satisfactory results. Just a class or two can make all the difference. It can be a solitary pursuit, but at class or two, and visiting a show or two, and a demonstration or two can really make a difference. The internet alone, is not enough for the average person wanting to learn bonsai.

I mention bonsai as 4 dimensional, because time is critical with bonsai. Being able to perform a technique, and predict what the results several years down the road is key. Knowing what technique to apply at a given stage of development is key. For example, much is made of "decandling" Japanese black pine (JBP). It is performed approximately 100 days before the first frost in your individual growing season. Timing of decandling is important, or it won't work. However, decandling is a technique applied ONLY to branches and trees that are developed, mature. It is not a technique for young JBP in the early phases of growing out. You can have one branch on a JBP ready for decandling while the rest of the tree still needs growing. Being able to recognize the time and timing elements is something that having an experienced teacher can help with.

I had trouble with JBP, they always seemed to fail to thrive, and then would die on me. Turns out, looking at photos on the internet, I did not understand what a healthy vigorous JBP looked like. It wasn't until I saw a local artists JBP that I understood what a vigorous JBP should look like. Big foxtails of new growth. All the photos on the internet were AFTER decandling and needle plucking, which results in a very sparse look, that is temporary. I was confusing that plucked and pruned look for what a JBP ready to work on should look like. So in fact I was not allowing my JBP to grow and recover after pruning, decandling and or other techniques. If you keep working on a tree weakened by decandling, and or needle plucking, you run the risk of sending it into a downward spiral towards the compost heap.

In fact for JBP you do your radical pruning, decandling and other work, then leave them alone to recover until they have bushy foxtails of growth again. Then you can begin the next round. Sometimes the recovery does not happen in one summer, you need to wait, even if it takes 2 or 3 growing seasons. I only learned this by seeing someone else's trees. Trees at shows were always "plucked and pruned" to be sparse and fairly bare. You get the wrong idea from shows, and show photos, as that is what a JBP looks like AFTER all the work is done.

So network, get live and in person with trees and other people who know something about bonsai. It doesn't have to be formal classes. Be creative, there are many ways to create learning opportunities.

 

[Richardse]

all that is really useful, thank you very much!

 

[Adair M]

So just as there are "outsider artists" there are, can be "outsider" bonsai artists, that are entirely self taught. But, those that are able to grasp the 4 dimensional aspects of bonsai without assistance from others are few and far between. Most who insist on being "outsiders" end up foundering around, with less than satisfactory results. Just a class or two can make all the difference. It can be a solitary pursuit, but at class or two, and visiting a show or two, and a demonstration or two can really make a difference. The internet alone, is not enough for the average person wanting to learn bonsai.

I mention bonsai as 4 dimensional, because time is critical with bonsai. Being able to perform a technique, and predict what the results several years down the road is key. Knowing what technique to apply at a given stage of development is key. For example, much is made of "decandling" Japanese black pine (JBP). It is performed approximately 100 days before the first frost in your individual growing season. Timing of decandling is important, or it won't work. However, decandling is a technique applied ONLY to branches and trees that are developed, mature. It is not a technique for young JBP in the early phases of growing out. You can have one branch on a JBP ready for decandling while the rest of the tree still needs growing. Being able to recognize the time and timing elements is something that having an experienced teacher can help with.

I had trouble with JBP, they always seemed to fail to thrive, and then would die on me. Turns out, looking at photos on the internet, I did not understand what a healthy vigorous JBP looked like. It wasn't until I saw a local artists JBP that I understood what a vigorous JBP should look like. Big foxtails of new growth. All the photos on the internet were AFTER decandling and needle plucking, which results in a very sparse look, that is temporary. I was confusing that plucked and pruned look for what a JBP ready to work on should look like. So in fact I was not allowing my JBP to grow and recover after pruning, decandling and or other techniques. If you keep working on a tree weakened by decandling, and or needle plucking, you run the risk of sending it into a downward spiral towards the compost heap.

In fact for JBP you do your radical pruning, decandling and other work, then leave them alone to recover until they have bushy foxtails of growth again. Then you can begin the next round. Sometimes the recovery does not happen in one summer, you need to wait, even if it takes 2 or 3 growing seasons. I only learned this by seeing someone else's trees. Trees at shows were always "plucked and pruned" to be sparse and fairly bare. You get the wrong idea from shows, and show photos, as that is what a JBP looks like AFTER all the work is done.

So network, get live and in person with trees and other people who know something about bonsai. It doesn't have to be formal classes. Be creative, there are many ways to create learning opportunities.

Good stuff, Leo!

I might add: when working with an instructor, try to use the same tree over several seasons. That way, the instructor can help you progress the tree.

Don’t take the same tree to several instructors! The tree will be “restarted” each time.

If you work with several instructors, make sure to segregate in your mind which trees go with each instructor.

 

[Lazylightningny]

There are some good articles and tutorials in the resources section https://www.bonsainut.com/resources/

 

[MaciekA]

How do folks suggest us newbies handle education, esp. those of us who are doing this as a hobby and not a profession? Not everyone can set aside 4 years for an internship, but many of us can take intensives, local classes, etc. I'd think that misc. individual classes lack continuity and consistency, and the ability to watch changes to a tree over time. Feels like a big loss.

Secondly, I think most beginners with a long term view probably should focus more on basic horticulture, propagation, and learning early aspects of the grow-out phase of the bonsai life cycle. It seems to me that fitting trees in tiny pots, improving ramification, leaf size reduction, etc. are for a couple years down the road. Curious if others agree.

For me, on-site, travel-to-the-teacher, hands-on intensive seasonal classes made all the difference. Learning from someone in this way leaps you out of the dark and straight into tangible skills that you can feel in your hands thereafter.

I think the quality of the teacher and the format matters, so for anyone in the US, ideally look for someone who is organizing seasonal intenstives in the style of Boon (Examples: Boon himself, Hagedorn, Ryan's on-site Bonsai Mirai seasonals, Bjorn, etc).

People might debate this, but for me, the core of bonsai is first a craft learned through other people -- you can forge your own artistic path once you've learned the craft part from others. I haven't seen a single book that comes close to even giving you as much as a single day spent at, say, Hagedorn's garden.

I think video-based education can be a powerful source of training too, but here too the quality of the source matters. Hot take, but I think people who feed only on a diet of, say, Herons Bonsai videos will come away with ideas like "be bold!" and "heal sick trees by potting them into sphagnum moss!" and "you can make a bonsai in 5 minutes!" but I've never seen Peter mention auxin, or even acknowledge that development is different from refinement, or things of that nature, and those parts seem to matter quite a bit if you want to get to Year 10.

So as a student, if you're not traveling to an experienced person's yard to learn hands on... then you have to be careful that your source isn't building up a low quality network of ideas in your head and is merely a source of entertainment.

Finally, aside from the craft, I think the process of clarifying bonsai concepts in one's mind tends to thrive on thought experiments driven by questions of physiological mechanics:

• Soil (what's specifically interesting about akadama? why won't glass beads work? why does slip potting sometimes fail?),
• Photosynthesis (what is the source of water draw in a tree? why do some shoots win and others lose over time? do non-leaf parts of the tree photosynthesize?),
• Specific species growth cycles (when do buds emerge? why didn't buds emerge? what is the tree doing in autumn? what is the utility of winter dormancy? when do I get flowers? how and why do pines back bud? How do I make that happen reliably?),
• Sugar (where is it? what is it? where's it stored? how much is available at different time of the year? how does it move around, and how fast?)
• Hormones - signalling, production, distribution (what does auxin do or not do? where are the auxin emitters? where are the cytokinin emitters?),
• Environmental adaptation (why do trees at high elevation move water slowly? why do coastal pines sometimes flush again after removal of candles?),
• etc, etc.

With that in mind, any teacher who does not at least occasionally tie their craft back to some core framework of physiological mechanisms is passing along a recipe, not understanding. It is difficult to troubleshoot problems or to anticipate the response of a living, breathing 4 dimensional sugar factory without at least some understanding. Rote craft is not enough. Even a seasonal intensive student will have to eventually brush against the technical stuff if they want to build trees that look like that.

EDIT: I agree with the last part of your quoted message above. Development is building bonsai, maintenance is just maintenance.

 

[Dr3z]

High yield thread; thanks!

 

[Mikecheck123]

That would be taking the Intensive type classes offered by the various professionals who offer them.

Which is still second to selling all your possessions and becoming an apprentice in Japan for sixty years.

 

[TinyArt]

Beginner-to-beginner advice:

Use the Search function, because any time, day or night, there’s an unbelievably vast treasure trove of information in existing posts — dig patiently, and you’ll come up with amazing stuff, and an impression of who’s who in the forums as well.

(Thank you everybody!)

 

[ConorDash]

Yes! Starting with unsuitable material is maybe the most common beginner mistake.

That weeping willow cutting on Amazon is cheap, but it is a dead end. Your mom's rose bush is a dead end. That money tree at Target is a dead end. And (to be honest and at the risk of perhaps offending someone), that juniper from the roadside stand is probably also a dead end.

Other dead ends/scams:
-seed kits or seeds in general (if doing that to start out)
-wisteria cuttings
-sago palms

Good beginner material:
Chinese elms (even from the roadside stands!) (or any other elms, really)
Ficuses
Nursery stock (of a suitable species) with a promising trunk.

Ha, jokes on you, I didn't start my Wisteria from a cutting, I started it from a seed! So, there.. suck it

 

[Forsoothe!]

Yeah, it's not so much that the source is important as it is important for after-care. A Juniper from a roadside stand (a guy's car trunk) is better than any bought indoors (a department store in December). My sister bought me one almost 20 years ago which has been restyled more than once since then. It's now a pretty good tree...

you can see nice clouds from sideways...
and from the rear...

It's a nice tree because I had been in bonsai long enough to treat it like a Juniper and not like a houseplant. That's rare in itself.

 

[nboisvert]

This is encouraging, I just got started (a real beginner) and I try as much as I can do. I live in a 4b zone (Shawinigan, QC, Canada) so I have to deal with winter which complicates some stuff. I learned to listen to other online but not too much. As an example, I posted some messages on another forum and got quite disappointed by the "elderly" users of the forum. They aren't really there to help but to repeat the same sentence over and over. They always respond with "if the tree is inside, it will die, all trees go outside", while it is true for many species, I'm pretty sure that moving my Ficuses outside at -30c (-22f) will be even more harmful to the tree. But they don't care about that. What I wanted was advice, but all they say is it will die, I wouldn't have done that etc...

Personally, what I did is I tried to find the most trees at various stages to get started. What I got outside, I let them outside, I have some dug-up material, some bought material. Other people online have, of course, experiences, but I think one have to experience thing on its own. Not everyone has access to the same resources where they live and not everyone lives in the same climate and, most importantly, not everyone has the same taste. What is to you a beautiful tree, might not be someone else and vice versa and that's correct.

I hope to be able to grow trees that I think are beautiful.